PhD defence N.A. (Nico) Flierman

Saccades are the fast eye movements with which the fovea, the part of the retina where visual acuity is highest, is aligned with a subject of interest. In this thesis I study the relationship between the cerebellum and the steps necessary to produce an accurate saccadic eye movement. To this end rhesus macaques were trained in several different saccade tasks. I start this thesis with a detailed description of techniques that are used to perform behavioral and electrophysiological experiments in non-human primates. This chapter covers how structural imaging techniques can be used to design implants and offers a concise description of surgical techniques to implant those. Furthermore, I provide an overview of experimental techniques to measure eye movements, orofacial movements, extracellular recordings on single units, and pharmacological interventions. In the following chapters I use the methods mentioned above to study the relationship between activity patterns of cells in the cerebellum and visually guided behavior. Cerebellar activity has historically been studied mostly in the context of non-volitional motor behavior, such as posture or reflexive (eye) movements.

The PhD defences do not take place publicly in the usual way in the Senate Hall at campus Woudestein or in the Professor Andries Querido Room at the Erasmus MC. The candidates will defend their dissertation either in a small group or online.